First Look at Benicio Del Toro as The Wolf Man. Sort of.

After seeing this picture of actor Benicio Del Toro hamming it up as “the wolf man” (sans make-up, apparently), you have to ask yourself: Who needs make-up? This guy LOOKS wolfy enough as is! But I guess it’s just not enough, which is why Rick Baker will be supplying the fake fur and teeth when Benicio Del Toro suits up to play the wolfman in Mark Romanek’s upcoming “The Wolf Man” movie. (Wait, is that “Wolf Man” or “Wolfman”?) And just because they’re goofing it up in the picture below doesn’t mean “The Wolf Man” is going to be camp. How could it, with Romanek (“One Hour Photo”) directing and Andrew Kevin Walker (“Seven”) scripting?

The image below is via AICN. They also post a message from director Mark Romanek:

This was taken about three months ago — Our first meeting with the three of us.

This pose was a jokey homage to the classic Universal Wolfman/Famous Monsters Magazine-era style, but seeing Benicio getting “wolfy” for the first time, even in jest, gave us chills. It was our first glimpse of what we could expect from this amazingly original and gifted actor.

It was very exciting to see these guys in the same room. Rick could tell immediately that Benicio was a sincere fan of the Lon Chaney Jr. original. Rick is such a Wolfman fan, he admitted that he’s only campaigned for two films in his entire career. One was “Ed Wood” and the other is this project.

Seeing them together in the same room made me feel the project was finally becoming a reality.

Rick’s assistant Kazu took extensive hi-rez digital photos (on this incredible 30 megapixel Hasselblad digital camera) of Benny making various facial expressions. we were all so stunned to see just how expressive Benicio’s snarls and grimaces were, even without make-up.

Rick joked, “so, whattaya need ME for?!”

That said, the designs that Rick has created for Benicio are astonishing — subtle, detailed, (sexy), terrifying.